


Homing Pigeon

by Wordpainter15



Series: Star-Crossed AU [4]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Background Emperor Belos, Blind!Viney, Broken-Up, Companion Piece, Depending on where you live, Doomed Relationship, Emperor Coven!Emira, F/F, Flips between past and present, Future Fic, Hurt No Comfort, Inspired by Music, Like all my stuff apparently (-_-), Outlaw!Viney, Star-Crossed!Au, Underage Drinking, ex-lovers, still in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26818036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wordpainter15/pseuds/Wordpainter15
Summary: Years ago, Viney told Emmy that griffins are homing creatures- they always make their way back home. Emira knows that Viney always comes back to her. No matter what...She hates herself for it.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Emira Blight/Viney, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Star-Crossed AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954648
Comments: 24
Kudos: 96





	Homing Pigeon

**Author's Note:**

> I totally failed my test so I'm posting this now to make myself feel better (TvT)
> 
> Was trying to find a song to put me in Emira's head and found an entire album plus Billie Eillish' Hostage. I'm not lying when I say that Star-Crossed au is just the Red album by Taylor Swift

Emira really hates that mask they make her sky girl wear. Em hates everything about fighting Viney. She hates the burn in her muscles as she hunts down the witch like she’s prey. Hates how she can’t see those green eyes she loves so much behind the carved owl mask. Hates watching these nameless coven witches assault Viney with every sort of magic until both parties are covered in oozing cuts and purpling bruises. Hates that she has to be a part of it.

Her entourage is falling- unsurprisingly. The Blight really doesn’t know why her parents hyped this coven up so much. Yes, their magic is barely restricted and they can cast all sorts of spells, but these witches don’t actually know how to use anything outside of whatever track they had enrolled in as witchlings. This problem is apparent when one wild witch on a griffin can knock five Emperor witches on their butts. Emira’s platoon is down to only two members, herself and some Glandus alumni construction track witch who’s more brawn than brains. 

The Emperor witch dodges a fire spell and feels a surge of pride when it blitzs past her and scorches the foliage behind her. Viney was still struggling with that spell the last time they clashed. She sends back a distractory blast, her magic striking at the dirt near Puddles’ feet, and its explosion causes the griffin to rear. She mutters an apology to the griffin under her breath as she sprints forward, her magic forming a rope in her hand as the construction witch’s glyphed hand starts to swing a mighty punch. He hisses at Emira when it gets tangled in the magic rope.

“Sorry!” Emira lies as she yanks the rope and fist back, her magic untangling from the other Emperor witch. “Bad aim.”

It’s the distraction Viney needed. Puddles knocks into the bulky male with their large head and sends him flying into a tree. Emira crosses her hands behind her back, watching as he falls to the ground with a thump and can't help the smug grin that crosses her face. Dumb Glandus witches... Emira grips her staff in her hand and hastily draws a magic circle as a griffin comes barreling towards her. The shield pushes Viney and Puddles back, the beast’s nails digging up the dirt of the forest floor.

“Truce! Truce,” Emira pleads out as she throws her hands into the air. She drops them because Viney can’t see and her covenmates are too unconscious to be able to snitch on her anyway. 

Viney doesn’t send out another attack. She never does. Her band of outlaws are typically more moral than their Emperor counterparts. Savage witches don't throw reckless spells on every coven witch they see. 

“What’s the point of this, Emira?” Viney breathes out as she pushes her mask off her face. “And your witches suck.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Em agrees and smiles as Viney shakes her head in bemusement and a small smile creeps across Viney’s face. “There’s a pretty smile from a pretty girl.”

The smile falls immediately as Viney forces her mouth to smooth out and Emira mourns the loss of it. She throws the dumb hooded beak off her head, yet another thing she hates about being in this coven. Gold eyes watch Viney shuffle and she seems to wait for something, but as the silence stretches between them she kicks her heels into Puddles’ sides.

“Home, Puddles.”

Emira watches the griffin take off and she looks down at the dirt once she can’t make Viney’s figure out from the rest of the silhouette. Once upon a time, a long time ago, Emira remembers thinking that she’d be Viney’s home. 

…

Emira can remember the warmth of Viney’s head in her lap as she ran her fingers through the girl’s hair as they sat on the grass outside the stables at Hexside. It’s where they always ended up. Viney used to say it was because that’s where Emmy always used to end up looking for her. That was part of it, yes. In truth, Emira always pulled them there because it was a place just for them. A small little bubble just for two, where the warm sun casted a warm glow across her beautiful girl’s face and made those green eyes glow. Viney would always laugh when Emira kissed her eyelids.

“Why do you always do that?” Viney asked one time as she shoved her girlfriend away.

In response, Emira brushed her fingers through the brown hair, undoing the bun because Viney would crinkle her nose at her, and answered with. “Because I like your eyes, dove.”

“They’re pretty useless though.”

Emira’s mouth fell into a small frown, as it always would when Viney insulted her eyes. She buried her fingers into Viney’s side until the other was forced to laugh and push off Emira’s lap to evade the tickling fingers.

"Nothing about you is useless,” the Blight stated, deathly serious.

Viney shook her head in disbelief or in humor, unaware of the determined set of Emira’s jaw. Em watched as the girl whistled her griffin over and petted its soft feathering. The Blight pursed her lips at Viney’s dismissal of the topic. Her sky girl hated speaking about her blind eyes for too long. Her sky girl hated her blind eyes too, sometimes.Viney turned her head to where Emira sat and Emmy knew right then that she didn’t care what anyone would say about those eyes. She loved them, even on the days when Viney didn’t. Viney palmed around for Emira’s hand and gripped tight when the green haired witch clasped Viney’s hand with her own.

Viney smiled at Emmy and said, “Did you know that griffins are homing creatures? They always find their way home- no rider needed.”

“How do they do that?” Emira asked, not overly curious but wanting to hear Viney’s voice in her ears.

“Don’t know actually,” Viney responded with a shrug of her shoulders. A mischievous grin spread across her face and she pecked Emmy on the cheek. “Must be the same way I always find you.”

…

The apartment is cramped. Amity and her shove themselves and all their stuff into a small flat with closets for bedrooms and beanbags for chairs. Her younger sister is still in her uniform, the beaked hood hanging around her neck like the skull of a dead bird, off white and staring with dark black holes. It sends a shiver down Emira’s spines and she tears her own hood and gloves off and throws them on the side table by the door. Amity is twirling a glass around at the kitchen table, red liquid sloshing against the sides of the glass. Emira tips the bottle back and reads the lettering before raising a brow at her baby sister.

“Where’d you even get this?”

“Father’s cellar. Not like he’s going to miss it,” Amity says as she gags down a sip of the apple blood.

“You’re not of age to be drinking this, Mittens,” Em says, voice edging toward scolding as she sits on the creaky wooden chair and pushes her hair out of her face.

Amity’s gold eyes glow in the low candlelight. She drains the rest of her alcohol and grabs the bottle, filling the bottom of her glass with the sluggish liquid. The younger Blight leans back in her chair, clasping the glass between two hands and running a thumb over the rim. Emira leans against one of her hands, letting the monotonous sound of the radio fill the empty apartment. She lets Amity takes a few more disgusted sips before she speaks again.

“Did you find Luz?”

Brown hair shakes and falls into the teenager’s face. Sunken eyes glance back up at her, the bags making the skin seem dull and gray. Amity rubs at her tired eyes and slides the glass back onto the table.

“Haven’t been able to even get a lead in days…” Amity grips at her hair, tugging it into her fists and pulling at it. “Em. What if… what if someone got to her?”

“Stop pulling, you’ll go bald by thirty,” Emira chides as she reaches across the small table to unfurl Amity’s fingers. “No one got her,” Em reassures as she settles back into her seat. “It would’ve made the news.”

“She’d be dead by the time it got to the news,” Amity chokes out and rubs at her face. “I can’t- that can’t happen, Em.”

“It won’t,” Emira insists firmly. “That’s what we’re here for. We just got to get to them first.”

“They won’t come!” Amity screeches at her and Emira just sighs because here they go again, and leans back in her chair. “They won’t come with us! They hate us! I hate us…”

“Oh come on, Mittens,” Emira says softly as she lifts off her seat to grasp her sister’s shoulders. “Everything’s going to be fine. If Eda could avoid the Emperor’s coven for decades, then they can keep their heads on their shoulders.”

“They’ll never accept this,” Amity states and slumps against the table. “Even if we do catch them. Even if they join a coven, they’ll never be happy about it.”

The ‘they’ll never forgive us’ is left unsaid and hangs in the air, suffocating the two sisters. Emira coughs to try to clear the cotton dryness of her throat.

“But they won’t be dead,” Emira reminds and squeezes her sister’s shoulders. “Come on, go to bed and drain that bottle down the sink. You shouldn’t be drinking that awful stuff.”

“Are you saying that you don’t want any?”

“Of course I fucking want some,” Em teases lightly and grabs the mostly full bottle. She fills a glass with the fermented apple blood and hastily swallows half of the serving. It burns down her throat and she almost gags on it. She never has been a fan of hard apple blood, but she won’t say that she hates the numbing buzz it gives her.

“Did you find Viney?”

“She knocked my lot on our asses. Crazy sky girl,” Emira whispers that last part to herself softly and smiles as she takes another gulp of her drink. 

Amity just nods and sinks a little more into her chair. Em understands, even if a small part of her is happy she isn't Amity right now. Guilt gnaws at Emira’s heart at the thought. She’s sympathetic for her baby sister- it’s always scary when they can’t find their girls for longer than a few days. The longer they go between skirmishes, the more likely that another troop snuck past them and got to them first. Emira grinds her fangs at the thought of anyone going after her Viney. Of some strange witches chasing her down with fire and lightning, luring her places with fake sounds and ambushing the blind witch. Of one of them getting a hit at Puddles that would send them both flailing to the ground… Visions of Emira running to the throne room and finding her sky girl grounded and chained by some stranger with a blade to her throat. 

No, she can’t let that happen.

Emira throws her head back, swallowing the last of her glass. She drops the empty glass into the sink with the rest of the dirty dishes and bids her sister goodnight. Amity mumbles her own farewell as the Blight barges into her bedroom and plops onto the bed.

…

The first time Emira got piss drunk, Viney yelled at her very loudly on her own front lawn. She doesn’t remember much of what her then girlfriend has said. She did remember that they got into some fight the day of. The Blight doesn’t recall what it was about, but she has a feeling it was stupid and that one of them, if not both, overreacted. All that Emira really remembers is that it was a loud, dumb fight and that she got hissy, which caused Viney to get hissy. They had growled and spat at each other. Viney called her stupid, she called Viney controlling, and both stormed off in a huff. Her parents had been gone for the weekend and she had been pissed so she went down to her father’s wine cellar and snagged one of the bottles of hard apple blood. Ed found her vomiting it up in their bathroom at two in the morning. He called her pissed off girlfriend because he didn’t know what he was supposed to do with his babbling twin. 

Viney had stormed into the Blight mansion in the middle of the night with a bag full of elixirs and glyphs slung over her waist. Ed tells her that Viney hissed every insult in the book at her as she tied her hair back and cleaned her face as Emira was still hugging the toilet. An elixir was shoved down her throat and patches stuck to her arms as Viney tried to rehydrate her drunk blood and replenish vitamins. 

When Emira was standing properly again and able to walk without it looking like she had rubber ankles, Viney shoved her stuff into her bag and almost ran off the property. Em caught up to her on shaky legs and grabbed at her arm. Her hazy mind ignored the hissing and Emmy’s arms wrapped around her pissed off girlfriend. Viney screamed at Emira, said that she was an idiot and a brat and how dare she scare Viney at some ungodly hour in the morning by pulling some stupid stunt like this. The Blight had ignored the ranting and hugged her girlfriend closer until Viney ran out of steam. When Viney muttered again that receiving a call that Emira was puking her guts out scared her, Emmy whispered an apology in her sky girl’s ear. Confessed that she had been mad and stupid and did a dumb teenager thing. Viney echoed her own apology back for shouting and shoved Emira away when she tried to go in for a kiss because her breath still smelled like rancid vomit and alcohol. 

“Don’t do this again. Emmy,” Viney had demanded her when she finally untangled Emira off her and got onto her griffin.

“I’ll try, dove.”

Viney had been silent for a moment before she smiled at her hungover girlfriend, “If you do, call me. You know I’ll always come to you.”

…

Emira is following a rumor on her own. Well, Justice is with her, flapping his black wings at her side. She shouldn’t be out again, not after just seeing Viney a few days ago. It’s selfish, but getting a glimpse of Viney gives her a high stronger than any drug and she’s not egotistical enough to lie and say she doesn't want to see her. Em's willing to admit that she’s addicted to her sky girl. And Emira needs the rush. Her limbs are heavy and her eyes are tired and her head is throbbing and she just wants to see her girl before everything drowned her. She wants to touch her and cradle her face in her hands. It’s wrong- wrong to chase after the girl. Especially after the last big skirmish left Barcus limping and Gus with a bloody nose; she thinks she can still feel the young illusionist’s blood on her hands even though she had viciously scrubbed at her skin for days. 

Emira is so scared that one day one of her attacks will hit someone and leave them permanently marred. She knows that is the day Viney will turn her back on her and never indulge her again. Em wouldn’t blame her either.

Emira Blight isn’t sure where she really is. Deep in the woods and far away from Bonesborough. Following whispers from the edges of civilization that there’s been sightings of griffins and masked figures in the trees. Emira has no reason to be there. They have yet to get into a fight with the coven or be seen breaking laws in the nearest town. She has met het quota for the month and her platoon has been given their time off until the new round of assignments, but Emira needs to see her. If only to ease the pain in her heart.

“Viney?” Emira calls out into the trees as she walks through the growth. “You out here, dove?”

Justice grumbles beside her. Lands on his staff and settles himself there because he does not agree with bothering the wild witch when she is not causing trouble. Em knows her palisman does not agree with the laws he must enforce and he does not enjoy chasing down Viney outside of work. The wooden griffin shuffles and tilts his blind gaze toward the growth. Emira follows his head with her own.

“Viney?”

There’s a silence and then Emira is on her back with no air entering her lungs. Puddles doesn’t suffocate her for long, quickly lifting their weight off the coven witch. Gold eyes catch Viney’s green ones that blink at her. Viney has returned to her yet again.

“Why are you here?”

“Nice to,” Emira wheezes out as she gasps air into her chest. “Nice to see you too.”

“Are you hurt?” Viney asks and quickly comes closer and grasps at Emira’s arms. She draws her touch back when she touches bare skin. “You aren’t in uniform.”

“Off the clock,” Em chirps back at her and frowns when Viney’s ears droop. “I just needed to see you,” Emira confesses as a soft glow runs over her skin as Viney searches for injuries. The coven witch shivers as Viney runs her fingertips over her ribs, making sure Puddles didn't break anything. “I’m not hurt.”

Oh, but she wishes she is because Viney instantly takes her touch away. The outlaw grips at Puddles’ bridle, twisting the reins in her hands to give them something to do. 

“Why are you here, Emmy- Emira?”

“I just needed to see my sky girl.”

Viney’s face contorts and twists. Her ears flatten to the sides of her heads. Windburnt lips pulling back to show fangs. Emira can't help but stare. Even when Viney looks ready to claw her throat out, Emira finds herself falling a little bit more in love.

“You can’t keep doing this!” she hisses at Emira and her mouth quivers with the words. “You can’t just keep calling me back to you anymore! It's been years! This- this isn’t _fair_ , Emmy.”

Emira _knows_. She knows it isn’t fair- that she’s being a selfish, spoiled bitch as she reaches between the empty space and gently entwines their fingers. She knows it’s wrong to clasp Viney’s tear streaked cheeks in her hands, hands that she uses to throw spells at Viney and her friends. Hurting those whose biggest flaw is wanting to be free. Her sins crawl along her back and under her skin as she presses their lips together. Festers in her head because she knows that she shouldn’t ask Viney to open up to her as she probs her tongue along the blind girl’s mouth. But she does and Viney always let’s her. Always opens her mouth to let Emira’s tongue sweep in and always grabs at Emira’s neck to pull her closer. Viney always holds her with a borderline bruising force and Emira always grips her just as tight because she doesn’t want Viney to flee. 

They part for air, lips bruised and cheeks flushed and Em chases Viney's mouth as the wild witch turns her head away. Viney is crying, tears blurring her green eyes and Emira wipes the moisture away with her thumbs and kisses the tear stains away. She draws Viney to her neck and the beast girl cries into her shoulder.

“This isn’t fair, Emmy…”

“I know,” Emira answers around her choked up throat. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Emira chants the apology in Viney’s ear as the girl cries into her neck. She knows the moment Viney gathers her emotions and tucks them away because the other witch’s muscles stiffen and then she’s being pushed away. Viney is breathing heavily as Emira stumbles back a step. The brunette wipes at her face and throws herself on her griffin. She’s in the air, flying away with Emira’s heart by the time Emira finishes blinking. 

Emira grips Justice’s staff. Her palisman is blessedly quiet, but she can feel his judgement.

“I won’t do it again,” she tells him as she gets on her staff.

They both know she’s lying. It won’t be the last time. Emira will call out for Viney again and again and Viney will always find her. They’re homing creatures. They can’t help trying to go home, even if the home is supposed to be evicted.

**Author's Note:**

> Mmmm... no happy endings yet. TBH this is my agnst au. Next for this au will prob be lumity. Luz and Amity deserve some of my love


End file.
